_April_ 30.--Having perceived my bread had been low a great while, now I
took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit cake a day, which
made my heart very heavy.

_May_ 1.--In the morning, looking towards the sea side, the tide being
low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary, and it looked
like a cask; when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and two or three
pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by the late
hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to
lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined the barrel
which was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder;
but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone;
however, I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on upon
the sands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look for more.

CHAPTER VI--ILL AND CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN

When I came down to the ship I found it strangely removed. The
forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least six
feet, and the stern, which was broke in pieces and parted from the rest
by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging her, was tossed
as it were up, and cast on one side; and the sand was thrown so high on
that side next her stern, that whereas there was a great place of water
before, so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of the wreck
without swimming I could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out.
I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must be done by
the earthquake; and as by this violence the ship was more broke open than
formerly, so many things came daily on shore, which the sea had loosened,
and which the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land.

This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my
habitation, and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, in
searching whether I could make any way into the ship; but I found nothing
was to be expected of that kind, for all the inside of the ship was
choked up with sand. However, as I had learned not to despair of
anything, I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of the
ship, concluding that everything I could get from her would be of some
use or other to me.

_May_ 3.--I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which I
thought held some of the upper part or quarter-deck together, and when I
had cut it t